This invention relates to cooking vessels, and more particularly to a cooking apparatus designed for deep-frying, steaming, or boiling food items.
Cooking pots and kettles have long been used for both commercial and home food preparation. They differ in size, materials, and sometimesxe2x80x94their intended purposes. Some of the devices are particularly adapted for boiling foods, others for deep-frying, etc. Larger cooking pots and kettles can accommodate whole cuts of meat, fowl or poultry. The food industry provides also for a special type of vessel, the so-called xe2x80x9cturkey fryer,xe2x80x9d which is spacious enough to accommodate a whole bird.
Conventional turkey fryers are made from a relatively thick metal plate capable of withstanding elevated temperatures, oftentimes higher than 350 degrees Fahrenheit, particularly when a food item is deep fried in hot oil. The xe2x80x9cturkey fryersxe2x80x9d can also be used for frying other foods, such as fish, meats, and vegetables, as well as serve as steaming and boiling pots. In effect, these large vessels are multi-functional cooking systems.
One of the concerns when frying solid foods is that small particles of food dislodge from the larger segment of food; these small particles become heated in the frying oil much faster than the larger item. Therefore, when the frying vessel contains a large item, which takes longer to cook and small particles, which are heated relatively quickly, the smaller particles become burnt while the larger item is barely cooked.
Due to the turbulence of the oil being boiled in the cooking vessel, these burnt particles become suspended in oil and, when the main food item is taken out of the vessel, the smaller particles remain in the vessel. The burnt particles eventually settle toward the bottom of the vessel. It is conventional to re-use the frying oil. However, when the oil contains a large amount of burnt solid pieces, the oil not only loses its aesthetic appealxe2x80x94it may become dangerous to re-use.
An additional concern is the presence of seasoning agents that are added to the oil when frying the whole bird. These seasonings also become suspended in the oil; they have to be filtered out before oil may be re-used.
When a considerable amount of oil in a large xe2x80x9cturkey fryerxe2x80x9d has to be disposed of, it becomes an arduous task because of the weight of the vessel and the oil contained therein. While the turkey fryer cooking vessels have relatively high walls to prevent splattering of bubbling oil, they are awkward to handle and difficult to tip to pour out the used oil. The conventional turkey fryers have no means of draining the liquid contents of the vessel. The user usually has to pour out the liquid from the top of the container, which may be dangerous if the oil is still hot.
One of the conventional approaches may provide for the use of a hand pump to pump out the oil from the frying vessel. However, these hand pumps are usually cumbersome and difficult to use without splattering oil around the fryer.
The present invention contemplates provision of a food-cooking vessel that can be used as a multi-functional cooking apparatus while allowing draining of liquid from the vessel while at the same time filtering the liquid.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a food-cooking vessel that may be used for cooking large quantities of food.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a food preparation vessel that can be used as a multi-functional cooking system.
It is a further object of the present to provide a food-cooking vessel that will allow draining of the liquid from the vessel while filtering the liquid.
These and other objects of the present invention are achieved through a provision of a generally cylindrical container provided with a spigot assembly with a filter for filtering drained liquids. The spigot assembly is secured on the sidewall of the container above the bottom plate.
The spigot assembly comprises an attachment member that is welded to the container wall around the drain opening in the wall. The attachment member comprises a convex plate and a cylindrical portion fixedly attached to the plate. The cylindrical portion extends through the central opening of the plate into the drain opening of the container. The cylindrical portion does not contact the container wall, thereby avoiding the necessity of welding a straight edge to an outwardly convex container wall.
The spigot assembly comprises a valve operated by a handle to allow draining of the liquid from the container. An inline filter assembly is positioned downstream from the valve to filter out burnt particles and added seasonings. The filter, as well as the valve member may be removed for cleaning.